I don't generally participate here any more, but I did know some here are involved in a welcome effort to make things hard for the permit scalpers for the HD cables. I got an email today that was so infuriating, I figured I'd post it here, in case someone knows who or where it can be reported to. Naturally it's through hotmail with a reply link through Yahoo mail, both of which are difficult to trace to the abuser. it's from ReserveYosemite@hotmail.com, but also uses
ReserveYosemite@yahoo.com
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Fellow Campers/Hikers
Are you or your family/friends still looking for Half Dome permits or valley floor campsites in Yosemite National Park this summer? I may be able to help for a premium service fee. All reservations will be fully updated to your name to comply with the new required ID check-in policy (yes, it is possible). If you do not support American capitalism, please ignore this email and your email address will be automatically removed from the list.
ReserveYosemite@yahoo.com
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If anyone has an idea of who to report this to (other than the mail abuse at yahoo and hotmail), please do so or let me know where. This idiot has a lot of nerve citing "if you don't support American Capitalism" when he's nothing but a greedy criminal.
The temporary permit system is a disaster, and much too vulnerable to this type of abuse, as I see some members know since they're kept busy reporting craigslist abusers. I really hope they realize this and make some changes to it soon, even if it's absolutely no transfers and ID required.
Reminds me of the people who would book up the summer campsites and sell them on ebay, and then be self-righteous about being good old American capitalists. Now it's the cables too.
I could see a "chain email effect" of sorts making it impossible for this person to function with this; with the limited number of permits, no doubt he has to manually deal with emails, and if he got thousands, or even hundreds of responses that sounded serious but no one followed through, he'd maybe decide it wasn't worth answering emails all day when no one actually buys one of his ill-gotten permits. Maybe he's dumb enough to fall for "hey, where are you located, I'd rather just come by and pick up the permits". Or, if he uses Paypal to collect, they'd disable his account and put the funds on hold for illegal activity, not to mention being able to locate him.
Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 06:45PM by Sierrafan.